So, Brian wants to know 5 things about me he wouldn’t know…
- I used to be an avid hitchhiker. My longest ride ever was from Medicine Hat to Sudbury (over 2,500 kilometers, driven straight through at my behest!) which ironically came the day after my shortest ride, trying to get out of Cowtown (and getting as far as the ‘Hat in 12 rides!)
- My first official job title was “Knowledge Carpenter.” It started out as a joke (I worked for a ‘knowledge architect’ and since I was the one who ended up building everything…) but I eventually grew to be quite proud of it, though throught it I learned a valuable lesson – U.S. Immigrations Agents have no sense of humor and are definitely not fond of quirky job titles.
- If you look really hard through the photos in this book (which luckily seems out of print, though copies exist in many academic libraries) you might find evidence of my extremely short nude modeling career. ‘Nuff said. If you want to find out any more, it will cost you at least three drinks.
- I don’t drink. (Well not much. Except at Brian and Keira’s parties
) - I sent my first email message in 1977, at the age of 8. Whenever I’ve taught internet courses in the past I usually start with this as an icebreaker. So while not classic internet email as we now know it, the message was sent via a dumb terminal in my basement in Montreal that was connected via the phone lines to a VAX server downtown, then over dedicated lines to another VAX server in Kuala Lumpur where my father received it while he was working there for Menenco as a consulting engineer. My dad continued to play a big role in my interest and access to computers, getting us an Apple II for personal use and also having early DEC and IBM machines in our basement.
And now I will continue my tradition of meme muffling. – SWL
Nice ones, friend. I didn’t know those ones (except number 4, natch…)
1977! I’d imagine that puts you in a pretty elite calibre of users.
And I endorse the muffling, of course.
My first email was on a VAX in about 1982 or 83. It connected all our library branches so we could pass docs, ILL requests back and forth.
But that’s not the earliest in my family. In 1987, I was sitting at my Vax terminal with a text window open. My wife came to visit with our youngest son, maybe 5 months or so old then.
Of course, I have to hold him in my lap, he sees the keyboard and starts hammering away. Not quite a million monkeys and the works of Shakespeare, now I can understand the math in that one.
Anyway, I had the forethought to save the text in a file and I still have it through many, many electronic format changes.
How many other kids have their first writings preserved electronically?
That’s awesome Richard! I don’t think what I wrote back then was very profound, something to the effect of “Hi Dad” then waited 5 minutes, then “When are you coming home?” But it gives me the thought that I should make sure I do the same with my own kids, who even though they are 4 and 7 haven’t really been online yet! (oh the horror!)